Prison Systems

The State and Federal Prison System Axia College

Prison Systems

Both state and federal prison systems have a long history in the United States as well as a significant presence in modern times as the prison populations for both state and federal prisons continue to grow. State and federal prisons each have their own types of institutions and security levels and house different types of criminals due to their differing jurisdictions over state versus federal prisoners. This paper will discuss the state and federal prison systems and their respective histories, recent growth in prisoner populations, different types of facilities, security levels, and types of criminals. American state prisons were originally used as workhouses where prisoners could work off what they owed to the state for their crimes through hard labor, but the purposes for state and federal prisons eventually shifted towards using prisons with the intention of punishment and incapacitating the criminal by removing them from society. Not surprisingly, many of the ideas for the development of the first prisons in the United States came from England. The history of the American prison system began with the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia, which served as the first prototype for the Pennsylvania model for prisons where prisoners worked at tasks in solitary confinement in order to pay off their debt to society and theoretically reflect upon what they had done (Johnston, 2010). The Pennsylvania Model was based on the more humane approach that had earlier been spearheaded by William Penn, a Quaker, and focused on isolating the prisoners and preventing idleness, which was seen as a key factor in recidivism. However, the first prototype prison system in the Walnut Street Jail was not as successful as its designers had hoped and led to a host of problems such as overcrowding and the problem of prisoners being left idle during the day. Despite this, several states constructed their own penitentiaries and during the early 19th century two state systems quickly became the most popular: the Pennsylvania System and the Auburn System situated in New York. The Auburn system also utilized a rule of silence to control its prisoners but it was less costly and more

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efficient than the Pennsylvania System, which emphasized the separate confinement for prisoners and took more space. In the Auburn System, prisoners were now contract laborers performing a wide range of tasks and were subject to harsh discipline. The Auburn system eventually became the common model for most prisons in the United States because it ultimately proved to be less costly to operate due to the fact that inmates could work and eat together instead of remaining separate at all times. The Auburn system was later transformed by the Northern and the Midwestern states into the industrial prison model where prisoners worked long hours in prison factories. In addition, post civil war southern states developed Agricultural prisons to manage large farms in the south. In addition, the South and the West developed work camps where prisoners toiled on public roads, cleared roads, and performed other tasks in complete servitude to the state (Foster, 2006). Growth of the prison system continued after the civil war and paved the way to the American system in use today. Overall, over a million people are now confined to state prisons under what is known as the Department of Corrections and most of the growth of the prison population occurred in the last three decades (Foster, 2006). No single model is used for prison management across all of the states and it is difficult to compare recidivism and other information because these factors vary between one state prison system and another (Foster, 2006). Today, prisons are meant to hold prisoners with sentences usually longer than a year and climbing prison populations across the United States have led to overcrowded facilities. In the 1980s and 1990s, much of the increase in the prisoner population was due to the supposed War on Drugs, an offshoot of the War on Crime which caused both federal and state laws to increase regulations on drug crime sentences. Notably, criminals convicted of murder, robbery,

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sex crimes, kidnapping, and felony assaults make up half [of] the state prison population (Foster, 2006, p. 141). State prisons are designated or graded by their security level (Foster, 2006). Inmates are sent to a lower or higher security level based on their offense and sentence. These levels include: maximum security, close-high security, medium security, and minimum security prisons. Maximum security penitentiaries hold approximately 12% of state inmates and tend to be older prisons that feature a lower guard to inmate ratio and increased security (Foster, 2006). Closehigh security penitentiaries are usually similar to maximum security facilities but feature slightly less restrictive measures. On the other hand, medium security facilities tend to be newer prisons with dormitory style housing or pod-shaped housing sections in place of the cell design that higher security prisons tend to use. Typically, medium security prisons are the starting point for most prisoners entering the system. Finally, minimum-security prisons have fewer internal controls and tend to be smaller facilities that provide more amenities to inmates than other security levels and mainly house inmates who are short-termers, have been sentenced for non-violent types of offenses, or are approaching their potential release (Foster, 2006). The minimum-security level also includes state prison camps, which generally maintain minimum-security standards and often focus on keeping these minimum-security inmates busy and having them perform tasks in work programs for the state. Some penitentiaries may also feature a maximum-security facility as well as a minimumsecurity facility on the same property or will otherwise feature two or more security levels. These are known as multi-level facilities. In addition, there are also open-security facilities, which are community-based facilities. Notably, medium, minimum, and open security prisons have proved

Prison Systems to be critical to the expanding prison system because the developing trend has been that more people are incarcerated for non-violent crimes than violent crimes (Schlosser, 1998). In addition, the overcrowding at prisons resulting from booming prison populations created the need in the 1990s for a super-maximum security facility or unit that is capable of dealing with the most intense and violent criminals that can overwhelm a maximum security prison (Foster, 2006). The supermax level is the highest level of security currently in use and within supermax units, prisoners are kept isolated and in a permanent state of lockdown twentyfour hours a day (Foster, 2006). Some prisons also have special housing units with a similar design to a supermax facility but they are intended to store offenders for shorter periods of time

(Foster, 2006). Still, most prison facilities being built or designed today are meant for lower levels of security and for criminals who will most probably reenter society at some point. Federal prisons generally house offenders who are sentenced for offenses that fall under the jurisdiction of federal crimes. There were originally few federal crimes until the Civil War. After the civil war, federal offenses and prisoners began to increase in number. The 1891 Three Prisons Act is an example of one attempt at managing the growth of the federal prison system but the Act did not organize the system at the time (Foster, 2006). The Federal Bureau of Prisons was created by an Act of Congress in the 1930s and placed under the management of the Federal Justice Department in order to more effectively manage the existing federal prisoners (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2010). The 1930s Act by Congress created the position of a director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and led to the opening of the maximum-security prison called Alcatraz in 1934 (Foster, 2006). Overall, most federal prisons were considered to be better run and to have better funding than state prisons for most of the 20th century. The first U.S. penitentiary was the old military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which began to house federal prisoners in 1895 (Foster, 2006, p. 134). Prior to the opening of

Prison Systems this penitentiary and two others that promptly followed, federal prisoners served their time in state or local institutions. The position of the director of the Bureau of Prisons was an important one in how the federal prison system evolved in the 20th century and the contributions of several directors over the decades were significant to the image of the Federal Bureau of Prisons being viewed as a model system. However, the federal prison system has undergone many of the prison population explosion problems that state prisons have encountered in recent decades and is no longer as highly regarded in its management of federal prisoners as it has been in the past. By 2003, the system had grown to more than 100 institutions housing [a total of] 140,000 inmates (Foster, 2006, p. 138). While some state systems have shown a decline in their prisoner growth over the last decade, the federal Bureau of Prisons appears to be continuing to grow at a steady rate. It is also notable that some federal prisoners do reside in state, local, or privately managed prison facilities due to overcrowding issues with some federal prisons or for other reasons. Federal prisons have similar security levels or classifications to state prisons and categorize federal inmates within five primary levels: minimum security, low security, medium

security, high security, and administrative security (Foster, 2006). Minimum security inmates are generally held in federal prison camps which help to support larger institutions or military bases through inmate labor programs while low security generally refers to federal correctional institutions with dormitory housing and less than heavy duty fencing. Work and program components are emphasized in low security institutions (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2010). Next, medium security institutions feature increased internal control and strengthened perimeters from minimum-security facilities. High security penitentiaries are also known as U.S. penitentiaries and feature similar structural elements to state facilities. Finally, the administrative security level can hold a wide range of specially designated inmates and also uses the

Prison Systems Administrative Maximum Security Unit, which serves a role similar to the supermax security level used by the states. Federal and state prison systems are difficult to compare because the federal system was at one time viewed as a model system whereas state prison systems will vary from state to state. Notably, federal prisoners were once viewed more favorably than state prisoners but studies conducted in the 1980s served to show that federal prisoners can be just as violent as state

prisoners. Overall, approximately 45% of federal prisoners have a violent past and offenders who have been sentenced for felony crimes such as murder, robbery, sex crimes, kidnapping, and felony assaults make up 11% of the federal prisoner population (Foster, 2006). In addition, over half of federal prisoners are doing time for drug-related crimes even though the growth rate in that area has declined slightly since the 1990s. Other common types of criminals in the federal system include inmates sentenced for the illegal possession or use of weapons; those sentenced for arson, and immigration law violators, with each category, constituting roughly ten percent of the federal prison population (Foster, 2006). Finally, whitecollar crimes make up less than 10% of the federal prison population and it is notable that three out of every ten federal prisoners originate from other countries. In conclusion, state and federal prisons are important components of the criminal justice system. Both prison systems have separate histories, which are linked in origin because the federal prison system evolved out of need to house federal prisoners apart from state prisoners. The federal prison system also features separate security levels and types of prison facilities, although these features of both federal and state prisons do have some obvious similarities. Notably, state prisons serve to hold the majority of prisoners serving over a year of prison time within each state while federal prisons serve to house prisoners who have committed crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of federal law. Finally, both state and federal prison systems are now

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facing some of the same problems associated with overcrowding and the need to address prisoner overpopulation issues

References Federal Bureau of Prisons. (2010). A Brief History of the Bureau of Prisons. from http://www.bop.gov/about/history.jsp Federal Bureau of Prisons. (2010). Prison Types and General Information., from http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/ Foster, B. (2006). Corrections: The Fundamentals. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Johnston, N. (2010). Prison Reform in Pennsylvania. From http://www.prisonsociety.org/about/history.shtml

Prison Systems Schlosser, E. (1998). The Prison Industrial Complex. The Atlantic Online. from http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199812/prisons